Growing hopes of a bailout for Greece and a triple digit rise on Wall Street overnight have combined to push London shares higher again.

The FTSE 100 is currently up 22.63 points at 5134.47, with financials leading the way. But there are a couple of key events coming up, not least the Bank of England's latest inflation report due shortly. Later, testimony from US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is expected to give clues as to the future of its continued support for the financial system. These comments were supposed to have been delivered to the House Financial Services Committee but this has apparently been postponed because of bad weather.

And then of course, the Greek situation is likely to develop during the day, with talk of a deal at tomorrow's EU summit, but there are still concerns of a Lehman-like contagion spreading through Europe. Manoj Ladwa at ETX Capital commented:

Bailing out Greece would be a positive move and help alleviate some of the fears that have affected the market, but does it stop there? Who could be next to receive help with their debt levels and what point does the EU say enough is enough?

Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank added:

With a bail-out likely imminent it's probably time to get a little more positive in the short-term. In that light equities should see a bounce too. However these Sovereign issues are unlikely to go away over the coming months and this is unlikely to be the end game.

Still, at the moment the mood is cautiously positive. Lloyds Banking Group is the leading riser, up 2.05p at 50.25p, while Aviva - one of the insurers under pressure on concerns about its exposure to European bonds - has added 13.5p to 358p.

But miners were weaker as BHP Billiton, down 19.5p to £18.66, made cautious comments about a global recovery and did not launch a share buyback as some analysts had hoped. Even so the company turned in a forecast beating 24% rise in first half profits, and Investec moved its recommendation from hold to buy with a 2150p price target.